Today in History - August 10, 1846 -An Act of Congress signed by President James K. Polk established the Smithsonian Institution as a trust to administer the bequest of James Smithson. Smithson, a British chemist and mineralogist, named his nephew as beneficiary of his will, stipulating that, should the nephew die without heirs (as he […]

Today in History - August 8, 2007 - Astronaut Barbara Morgan, an elementary school teacher from Idaho, was the first teacher to have a successful voyage in space. Morgan’s flight was on the STS-118 (August 8-21, 2007), the 119th space shuttle flight, the 22nd flight to the station, and the 20th flight for […]

Today in History -August 7, 1944 - Largest electromechanical calculator ever built. The IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) (also called the Harvard Mark I) was the largest electromechanical calculator ever built and the first automatic digital calculator in the United States. Its size was 51 feet wide and eight feet high and weighted […]

Today in History - August 2, 1873 - the world’s first cable-powered railroad in San Francisco is tested. The inventor of the cable car was Andrew S. Hallidie (center image above) and contracted by the Clay Street Hill Railroad Company in San Francisco. Hallidie’s system used a continuous looped wire rope that was placed in […]

Today in History - July 31, 1790 - first U.S. patent went to Samuel Hopkins for an improvement “in the making Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process.” President George Washington, Attorney General Edmund Randolph, and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson signed the patent. […]